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Detailed record for Egerton 2973
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| Title |
Breviary, Use of Vallombrosa |
| Origin |
Italy, Central (Florence) |
| Date |
last quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
Style of Giovanni Boccardi. |
| Decoration |
12 small miniatures with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold, in the lower border of the calendar (ff. 3-8v). 1 large historiated initial, with a full foliate border including small miniatures and medaillons, with putti, fruits, animals, etc., in colours and gold (f. 9). 1 small historiated initial with partial foliate borders including a small miniature in the lower margin, in colours and gold (f. 126). Small historiated initials with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 17v, 20, 22v, 24v, 28v, 33v, 36v, 40, 43v, 47v, 52, 60, 63, 66, 71, 76, 77, 78v, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86v, 146v). 4 large decorated initials with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 17, 88, 98, 123). Small initials in red with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. |
| Dimensions in mm |
145 x 105 (95 x 65) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 154 (+ 2 paper flyleaves at the beginning, and 1 medieval parchment and 2 paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Formerly bound in green velvet with gilt clasps, 19th century (see Catalogue 1933). |
| Provenance |
The abbey of San Salvo, in the diocese of Florence: evidence of the calendar (see Catalogue 1933).
Unidentified owner: Vallombrosa arms, azur, a monk's hand, sleeved, grasping a tau-headed staff; crest, a bishop's mitre (f. 1).
John Boykett Jarman (d. 1864): his sale, 13 June 1864, lot 24.
Francis Fry (b. 1803, d. 1886), businessman and bibliographer: his sale, Sotheby's, 26 July 1917, lot 551.
Bought by the British Museum, using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829). |
| Notes |
Damage done to the book by a Thames flood in the early 19th century (see S. C. Cockerell, The Book of Hours of Yolande of Flanders: A Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson (London: Whittingham at the Chiswick Press, 1905), p. 4). Much of the original work, notably the miniatures in the calendar (ff. 3-8v), the Beatus page (f. 9), and the last historiated initial with the small miniature in the lower border (f. 126), has been repainted. |
| Select bibliography |
British Museum Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1916-1920 (London: British Museum, 1933), no. Eg. 2973. |
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f. 8v
December |
f. 28v
Man |
f. 63
Man in prayer |
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